Upon Further Review ...

Who's Your Mac-daddy Now?

September 22, 2003|By MARIO ORLIKOFF Daily Press

Marshall started the greatest day in Mid-American Conference history with a 27-20 win at No. 6 Kansas State, the highest-ranked team even beaten by a MAC school. Then Northern Illinois and Toledo followed with big wins of their own at night, with the Huskies winning 19-16 at No. 21 Alabama and the Rockets beating No. 9 Pittsburgh 35-31 at home. Throw in Miami of Ohio's 41-21 win at Colorado State, which was ranked in the preseason poll, and Bowling Green's narrow 24-17 loss at No. 5 Ohio State and the MAC showed off depth that must make the ACC jealous.

Despite the early success, the lack of respect will be stark come bowl season when the MAC will be relegated to the Motor City Bowl and the GMAC Bowl, while schools that lose five games will play in more prestigious and lucrative bowls. And the MAC has provided five of the 15 wins by unranked teams against teams in the AP poll this season.

EXCUSES. Reggie Hayes of the Fort Wayne, Ind. News-Sentinel offers possible Kansas State excuses for losing at home to Marshall:

* 1. "Because schedules are done so far in advance, it's tough to predict who's going to be a non-conference patsy down the line."

* 2. "They tricked us by playing their backup quarterback after we'd watched all that film on the starter."

* 3. "We couldn't recover from the physical beating of back-to-back games against McNeese State and Massachusetts."

* 4. "The officials failed to remind us that the games are only four quarters long."

HAVE-NOTS RULE! The most fascinating story line of the college football season's first month has been the uprising of have-nots. Earlier this month, Nevada-Las Vegas and Utah of the Mountain West knocked off the Big Ten's Wisconsin and the Pacific Ten's California. Louisville and Cincinnati of Conference USA defeated Syracuse and West Virginia of the Big East. Louisiana Tech of the Western Athletic Conference beat Michigan State. The Mid-American Conference's Miami of Ohio routed the Big Ten's Northwestern. Tulane, whose president, Scott S. Cowen, is leading the charge against the BCS, beat Mississippi State.

As Ray Parrillo of the Philadelphia Inquirer points out, there is greater parity in the college game because reductions in scholarships have created a larger talent pool for the have-nots. Today's athletes would prefer to play at Toledo rather than sit on the bench at Ohio State.

ALL-CLICHE. More from Hayes' vicious and great Cheap Shots column: "If they jump on the bandwagon now, they jump on the bandwagon," Oregon quarterback Kellen Clemens said of college football analysts after Oregon's 31-27 upset of Michigan. "We're still going to take it one game at a time." If we had more space, Hayes said, we'd run more Clemens' cliches, along with his statistics, but statistics are for losers and that's just the way the ball bounces. Time will tell if that changes.

MAC ATTACK. Mike Huguenin of the Orlando Sentinel points out the downside of the MAC's greatest day: It also means that it's going to be even tougher for the elite MAC teams to schedule games against "name" opponents. After all, why risk a loss to a team such as Toledo when Louisiana-Monroe or Buffalo are out there.

BLACK SUNDAY. It's safe to say that Atlanta fans are ready for the Doug Johnson Era to end. Michael Vick of Virginia Tech and Warwick High fame made the Falcons exciting, dashing and hip. Johnson has been anything but on all three accounts. Johnson played his worst game of the season against the Bucs' imposing defense, tossing three first-half interceptions and managing just 95 yards passing before being mercifully replaced by Kurt Kittner. Vick is still two long weeks away from returning to action.

DEUCE & WILD CARD. The playbook on how to stop New Orleans QB Aaron Brooks appears to have made the rounds in the NFL: Stop Deuce McAllister and make Brooks, the former U.Va. and Ferguson High standout, beat you with the pass. Brooks had no success at all in jumpstarting the Saints, who had the NFC's highest-scoring offense last year, against the Titans' stacked defensive fronts. On Sunday vs. Tennessee, the Saints could only outscore their special teams, which had a safety, through the first three quarters. "They took away our primary threat, which is Deuce running the football," Brooks told the AP. "Deuce had no daylight, no daylight at all."

HOT STAT. The Green Bay Packers are winless on days when temperatures exceed 105 degrees.

WOLVERINES WILT. Robyn Norwood of the Los Angeles Times covered Oregon's 31-27 victory over Michigan: "Michigan's Chris Perry walked onto the field Saturday as the early front-runner for the Heisman Trophy. By the time an electric afternoon in Autzen Stadium was over, he walked out with a mere 26 yards. It took him more steps to get to the Wolverines' bus."